Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) teamed up with Microsoft as part of its 1:1 device initiative

Closing the education gap in the U.S. has been a hot topic addressed by many tech companies as of late, and Microsoft is doing its part along with a Florida public school district to bring Windows devices to students.

According to The Official Microsoft Blog, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) teamed up with Microsoft as part of its 1:1 device initiative, which seeks to place the technological tools in students' hands in order for them to gain the skills needed to succeed through K-12, college and eventually the workplace.

The partnership between M-DCPS and Microsoft will result in the rollout of 100,000 Windows 8 devices by August 2015. Starting this spring, 13,000 elementary school students will get laptops while about 15,000 7th grade civics students and 9thgrade world history students will get Windows 8 devices.

To top it off, M-DCPS’s 350,000 students will receive Office Pro Plus for free as part of Microsoft Student Advantage.

[SOURCE: weebly]

"We applaud M-DCPS for carefully looking at the needs of its teachers and students before making the decision of which technology solution to implement," said Margo Day, vice president of U.S. Education at Microsoft. "We believe that choice in devices is critical and we support the variety of our hardware partners with their diverse Windows 8 offerings."

The ConnectED initiative aims to connect 99 percent of U.S. students to the Web via Internet-connected devices within five years. It will also make better use of existing funds to ensure internet connectivity and train teachers on the use of devices and Web services.